An Angel's Heart
by Dark Demigoddess
Summary: Tohru goes missing one night and Akito, out of boredom, helps search for her. He then discovers he has unexpected feelings for her, and he's willing to do anything to win the angelic girl's heart. Rating may rise. Please r&r. [Temporarily on hold]
1. Searching

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Hi.

This is my first Fruits Basket fic. In fact, this is my first anime fic ever. 

I used to write under the Vampire Slayer section, but since they took it off…

*Growl*

Anyway, this fic is basically an Akiru, but it might have a little Kyou and Yuki romance in it, too. 

Summary: Tohru goes missing one dark night and Akito, mostly out of boredom, helps search for her. After finding her, he realizes he has feelings for her that he never expected to have. And he will do _anything_ in his power to win the angelic girl's heart…

I'm having fun writing it, and I hope you like it!!

Thanks to Cybeleflame for beta reading!! (Sorry I didn't use your title suggestion ^_^;)

Dark Demigoddess

Disclaimer: Do you honestly believe I would waste my time on the internet if I owned** Hatsuharu…**

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(a line signifies a change in POV)

Chapter 1: Searching

The phone rang. And rang. And rang.

Hatori tried to ignore it, shoving his head under a pillow.

Ring…ring…ring…ring.

Finally, he flipped over to look at the digital clock glowing serenely through the darkness from his nightstand. The bold red numbers glared at him, almost defiantly. 1:35. Who could possibly be calling him at 1:35 in the morning? The ringing teasingly ceased as soon as he sat up, and he groggily moved to turn off the phone, or pull the cord out of the wall. Anything to stop the infernal sound that kept him from what little sleep he was able to get. The doctor's finger was above the switch when the ringing commenced again. He answered it robotically.

"What." His voice was still raspy with sleep. 

"Ha-san! We need your help." Hatori woke instantly when he heard the distress in his dear friend's voice. 

"Shigure, what is it?" It was unsettling to hear the usually playful dog sound so anxious. 

"She's missing, Ha-san. We can't find her. Tohru…she was supposed to be home about two hours ago, but she never showed up…it's like she's disappeared!"

"Did you call her work?" His voice was calm and deep now, concerned. He held the phone against his ear with his shoulder as he pulled his pants on. "Maybe she did some overtime."

"Yuki, he did that, they said she left at 11:00, like she was supposed to! He also called her friend, Uotani. She hasn't seen her since school let out. And the denpa is out of town, so we know she isn't at her house." Shigure said all this without taking a breath, and seemed exhausted and scared when he spoke again. "Ha-san, what if she's hurt somewhere and we can't help her…you know how clumsy she can be." 

Hatori shrugged his shirt on and unceremoniously shoved his feet into his socks. "And trusting. I hope she didn't go off with some stranger." 

"And she's weak." Shigure added, even more anxious now. "She couldn't defend herself if something were to happen…that's why Kyou or Yuki is always with her."

"Why weren't they with her tonight? Why didn't they walk her home?" He asked tentatively, groping shakily for the lamp as he hurriedly searched for his keys. 

"They were both busy with school or something. She said it'd be fine, she wasn't leaving as late as she usually did, and she walks by herself all the time. Don't blame them for what happened, Ha-san!" Anger suddenly trickled into his frightened voice. 

"I'm not, Shigure, calm down. We're not even sure anything _has_ happened. Are they out searching for her now?"

Keys. His keys. He suddenly felt that they were deliberately hiding from his worried and sleep addled brain. If he wanted to have any hope of locating the troublesome things, he needed more light than the weak illumination of the bed lamp or the powdery streaks of silver moonlight that fell into the room through the window. 

He flipped on the light as Shigure answered. "Yes, they've been out, along with Uotani, since 11:45. I was sleeping and didn't realize anything was wrong until they woke me up an hour and a half ago, but I'm staying here in case she shows up. It would go faster if we had someone searching in a car, Ha-san."

"I'll drive around until we've found her. Call me when she's safe. You know my car phone's number, right?" 

"Of course. Call us if you find her, too. I'll be here." Shigure sounded pained. It must have hurt him to stay inside while she was missing, leaving the others to look for her while he sat at home with nothing to do but wait. 

"I'm sure she's fine, Shigure." He said, trying to be reassuring. 

"Thank you for your help, Ha-san." 

"I care about Tohru as much as you and the boys do. I'll do what it takes to see her safe. Good luck."

"Good luck." Shigure hung up with a click, his frantic voice silenced. 

The doctor had yet to find his keys, and felt like punching the wall in frustration. For all he knew, Tohru was laying in a ditch somewhere, hurt and needing immediate medical attention. He had to find her soon. Every second he wasted was crucial. 

"Oh! Of course." Hatori sighed at his own ignorance. "That's where they are." He ran down the hall, skidding to a rather uncharacteristic halt as he reached the front door. His keys were resting in a small ceramic bowl with a seahorse painted on the bottom, on the small shelf next to the frame. The bowl had been a Christmas present from Tohru months ago, and it had come in very handy. She had gotten them all presents last year, despite the fact that they had told her not to. She had even given Akito a gift, though Hatori doubted that the leader had even unwrapped it yet. 

"God, I hope she's alright." He worried out loud as he fished the bowl's contents out with a jingle. 

He grabbed his coat and dashed out of the house with the irksome keys in his hand, not bothering to turn off the lights. The grounds of the Honke had a haunted look to them in the middle of the night, with everything deserted and desolate. Like a ghost town whose inhabitants had long given up hope of saving it, and left. Only the spirits that couldn't be free of this place remained. No matter how far they tried to run, how hard they tried to escape, they felt the pull of the Honke, of the Soumas. And eventually they all came back. Back to the village that tied down their souls, back to the master that held tight to their metaphorical chains.

But an angel had graced these Juunishi ghosts with her divine presence, bringing them out of the lonely despair with which they had come so accustomed to living. She made existence much more bearable for all of them. 

Hatori shook his head at his symbolic thoughts as he reached the towering gate. His hands were already pressing it open as quietly as possible when he heard a soft voice behind him. A chilling voice that he knew all to well. 

"I wonder…" Akito said in a deceptively gentle tone. "I wonder, where Hatori could be going at this time of night?"

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He watched the doctor freeze upon hearing his voice. It reminded him how much he enjoyed that feeling, that knowledge. The knowledge that he could instill fear in any of the Souma with a whisper, the knowledge that though he barely hung onto life in his frail, weak body, he had all the power. 

Hatori turned around, but to Akito's surprise, he only seemed startled. Instead of appearing frightened, he wore a look of gentle agitation, as if he was being stalled from something important. It was irritating. 

"Oh, were you in a hurry?" The leader began to stroll forward, he felt his mouth twitch into an angry smirk. "You seemed to be, by the way you were rushing to the gate without even turning of the lights. You don't pay the electrical bill, Hatori. You could at least conserve a little energy." He reached the man and stopped about a foot away from him, and as he watched apprehension arose in the older man's eyes. The perpetually calm doctor spent more time with him that his other family members, and as a result, he wasn't as scared of his master as the other Juunishi. 

__

But, Akito thought as he drew closer and the uneasiness on the doctor's face grew, _he can still be intimidated. _

His smirk widened. "So, were you running of to do some business that you didn't want me to know about?" He reached out and grasped Hatori's shirt, his claw-like fingers reminding him of his ever-present illness. He traced the pale extremities up the dragon's neck, cradling his cheek. "To meet someone? A lover, perhaps? Hm?" His other hand materialized from the engulfing sleeves of his kimono, curving around to latch onto the back of the taller man's neck. Suddenly he felt a strong hand on his chest, pushing him away, gently. 

"Akito-san!" Hatori gasped as his hand came into contact with the leader's skin. "Your pulse." He grasped the thin wrist in his hand. "Your heart is beating much too fast…you shouldn't be wandering around outside like this, especially this late at night. You should go rest--" Akito yanked his arm viciously from the powerful grip and stepped back as his doctor tried to press his palm to his forehead.

"You can't tell me what I should and shouldn't do!" he rasped, clutching the dark fabric of the kimono shut and glaring angrily. "I feel fine. I'm just a little exhausted. I had to run all the way here from my room in order to find out why you were leaving, after all." He straightened his clothing and regained his composure, eyeing Hatori distrustfully. "Now, tell me. Where are you going?" 

Stepping back and staring calmly at Akito, he spoke. "Tohru Honda is missing. She was supposed to be home two hours ago, and no one knows where she is. I'm going to help search for her." 

The leader's eyes narrowed. It was always about that girl, wasn't it? "That woman. She's never anything but trouble. Tohru Honda." He spat the name as if it were something vile. "Yet you care enough about her to leave your home at 1:40 in the morning because she's a couple hours late getting home from work." Hatori responded to this comment with a solemn nod, and Akito felt his anger rise again. "I could keep you from going, you know." He growled, a mirthless smile curving his pink lips. "I could hold you here, and never let you see her again. Or, I could let you find her, and then take her away from all of you." He chuckled softly, watching the worry flit across Hatori's face. 

"Okay…I'll let you search for her. But…" he made a fake-distressed face. "how can I be expected to sleep when such a _dear_ family friend has disappeared? I _must_ help, as much as I can." He laughed out loud at this, a predator baring his teeth. "You can go, and I'm going with you."

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Hatori's eyes roamed back and forth over the sides of the road, making sure he didn't drive past anything that could give him a clue as to where Tohru might be. He had the headlights of the car turned up as bright as they could go, and though most of the light hit the dirt road directly in front of the vehicle, whatever illumination reached the trees and patches of tall grass that framed the curving path was better than nothing. 

"Are you _sure_ this is the route she takes to get to Shigure's house?" Akito's bored voice drawled from the back. Hatori had noticed him gazing leisurely out the window ever since they left, as if they were on a casual drive through the park. 

"Yes." He responded monotonously, eyes still roving through the sinister foliage around him. 

"Hm. She must be as stupid as I thought she was." The doctor watched him eye a pile of beer cans that was clumped in the grass. "Walking around in this secluded area so late at night. Maybe she was kidnapped." He sounded delighted at this idea. "Serves her right." 

Hatori's knuckles turned white as he clutched the steering wheel angrily, but he said nothing.

Akito did not notice the driver's reaction to his comment, and continued to stare blankly out the window. "Do you think they've found her yet?" His voice was maliciously light, as if he were trying to initiate conversation over the weather.

"No." He chose not to elaborate as he turned as much of his attention as he could to the dark surroundings. 

After a few moments of waiting Akito turned annoyed eyes to the front seat. "How do you know?"

"Because Shigure would have called me." He looked in the rear view mirror, watching the younger man's face. His answer seemed to be satisfactory, because the pale countenance was turned towards the window once more, his thin finger tracing up and down the blackened glass. 

The car was silent except for the sound of the tires crunching over loose stones and scattered twigs. Hatori was so immersed in his now undisturbed hunt that he didn't notice that his passenger was attempting to get his attention until his name was spoken loudly in his ear. 

"Hatori…_Hatori, _stop." He felt a tickling breath against his ear as a snow white hand wrapped itself around his shoulder. He complied quickly and turned around in his seat.

Akito's tone was indifferent as he pointed behind him. "Back up."

"What?" He leant in closer, hope blooming inside him. "Did you see something?"

The kimono clad boy nodded in response, then reclined into the leather seats again, but staring out his window much more attentively. "Just back up." The soft voice floated to him. "I'll tell you when to stop."

He put the car into reverse, slowly easing it back down the cluttered road, anxiously glancing into the backseat every few seconds. 

"Here." The dull voice from behind him spoke. 

Hatori stopped the car with a jerk, throwing his door open. He scanned the area frantically, back and forth, but didn't notice anything. He unlocked Akito's door, asking, "What? What exactly did you see?" The younger man shot him a very irritated look as he lifted himself out with a fragile grace, and walked straight forward about five feet, stopping when he reached a small tree. "_This_ is what caught my eye." 

The doctor watched in wonder as Akito unwound something from a branch of the tree, stretching his arms as far as he could so that he wouldn't tangle the long object with the thin twigs that scratched at him. Finally, he turned to the helpless feeling man who was observing him and held his hand out.

There, resting on his pallid palm like a bright forest creature, was a yellow ribbon. "This is hers, is it not?" His voice still sounded lifeless, but a small mischievous grin lit his lips when the ribbon was snatched from him. 

"Yes." The dragon stared at it as he spoke. "Yuki gave two of these to her. She always has them on." He turned wide eyes to the leader, amazed. "How on earth did you see this?" 

"Oh, are you proud of me?" The teenager laughed bitterly, tilting his head back. "It seems that no matter how sick I get, my eyes will always be sharper than the average invalid's." He stepped forward, his laughter leaving his mouth curved gently. "You'll be even more proud of me, after you see this." 

He motioned to the other man with his hand, and walked farther into the small forest. Hatori followed him, pulling a small flashlight from his pocket as the wooded area grew denser, the pressing darkness almost thick enough to slice with a knife. Akito stopped suddenly. "Here." He pointed his slim finger towards the foot of a large tree. A bookbag sat there on some moss, nearly upside-down, as if it had been thrown harshly. The doctor recognized the keychains that were splayed upon the soft green carpet, and the slightly battered corners that were leaning comfortably on the old bark. He opened it and checked the papers inside to confirm his suspicions. 

"This is hers, too." 

"I thought as much." The quiet speaker strolled on, listlessly. Hatori followed him at a much more desperate pace, almost smacking into a darkly clothed back when his escort stopped. They'd reached a small, flowery clearing, not to far from the place they'd found the bookbag. A choked gasp escaped the older man as he saw what lay in the center of the grassy area.

There, with a celestial spotlight turning her entire body to sparkling silver, was an unmoving Tohru. 

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Oooooooh, is Tohru okay?

What could have happened? 

You'll just have to wait….

So, what'd you think?

I update faster when I get reviews…

But no flames, please. I didn't hold a gun to your head and make you read my fic…

Flames make me curl up into a fetal position and cry until a can cry no more.

I'm very sensitive. 

Is the rating too low? Too high? Tell me what you think.

I love input and opinions, as long as you're nice about it.

Thanks for reading, please review. 

Dark Demigoddess


	2. Found

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H-hello…l-l-l-ong t-time no s-see…

*ducks under bed to avoid flaming arrows and garbage flying at head*

G-g-g-gomenasai!!

*pokes head out from under the covers*

I know I didn't keep my promise…I'm so so so sorry!! Really!! I c-couldn't help it!! I just started high school and I barely came out of the first quarter with a 3.8, and I'm taking 2 honors classes and two languages at the same time…I've been to busy…;_;

And right in the middle of me typing my chapter, one of my best-best-best-best-best-best-best-best most awesome, amazing, cool, wonderful, sweet, cute, loyal, extraordinary, marvelous, and all around perfect anime-loving friends (Natalia ;_;) went to live in Brazil and I wont get to see her for over a year!!! I've been too depressed to move…

I'm such a horrible person! I got way more reviews than I expected, from all these wonderful people, and I didn't even update for 4 months!! Waaaaaa, don't hate meeeee! 

Sorry about that horribly long intro/autobiography, but I hope it keeps you from lynching me...even though I totally deserve it.

Anyway, Here's is what you've all been waiting for…the next chapter of my furuba fic!

Enjoy!

Dark Demigoddess

Disclaimer: I will own Fruits Basket when Kyou and Yuki hold hands and skip to class. 

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Chapter 2: Found

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Yuki was sitting at the small table, shoving batteries into the three flashlights that were his small search party's most essential tools. His fingers trembled and constantly dropped the slippery cylinders, scrambling to catch them before they rolled onto the floor and further delayed him from his urgent mission. He could hear Kyou in the kitchen filling up water bottles, firing question after question at Shigure. The dog was rubbing ointment on the gangster girl's hands in an attempt to fight off the speckled rash that was spreading across her skin, her souvenir from a nasty run in with some poison ivy. 

"I told you already. Ha-san will call me when he finds her. He won't let her down." The playful whine that usually laced the author's voice was absent, replaced by a restless tone that was more than a little unsettling. 

"But it's been almost an hour!" Behind the cat's angry voice was the slightly muted sound of running water. Yuki heard it slosh around sloppily in the sink, more going down the drain than into the bottle. 

"Then he should be calling any minute." Shigure responded softly, trying to soothe the frazzled red head as he closed the small first aid kit with a click. "And if…when he does, I'll be here." He slid the shouji open sharply, causing an angry cracking sound, which was followed by the light tapping of his bare feet on the stairs as he went to return the box to the bathroom cupboard.

The steady ring of water hitting the walls of the metal sink was the only sound in the moments that followed. Shigure's behavior, though understandable, disturbed and unnerved them. When the three had departed into the dark woods, the dog had been frantic and worried, nearly in tears. Now, the man who usually comforted the people around him with his mood lightening antics was replaced by an anxious doppleganger that seemed unrecognizable in anything but appearance. 

The tinkling water stopped abrubtly, the echoing creaks of Shigure's footsteps filling the sudden silence. Kyou slowly walked into the dining room where Yuki toiled angrily with the flashlights and wordlessly dropped one of the three dripping bottles he was holding in front of the preoccupied mouse. Startled eyes jerked upward towards the cat, who had relaxed against the opposite wall, leveling his blood-red gaze downward. 

"Hurry up with those, kusonezumi." He halfheartedly added the insult, trying to add a sense of normalcy to the bizarre situation. The angry tone with which he'd spoken to Shigure had softened, probably out of regret for indirectly causing the author's retreat. "We're waiting on you."

The gray-haired teenager nodded his head, sliding two batteries into the final dark tube with a clunking sound. His unsteady hands screwed the top on tightly as the blond gangster purposefully walked through the door and jerked her bottle out of Kyou's hand.

She was still wearing her flowing school skirt, but she had replaced the outfit's customary blue top with a plain white T-shirt, which seemed to be the unofficial uniform of their small band of searchers. She had rather forcefully required them to change, insisting that they needed to be able to see and recognize each other in the pitch colored darkness. 

Yuki had to admit that it was a good idea, although it was most likely a notion that had remained with her from her violent past, when the hunters she traveled with weren't incredibly concerned with the welfare of the object of their search. But now wasn't the time to dwell those things. Everything seemed trivial compared the problem he was facing now. He wouldn't let any irrelevant thoughts pass through his mind until they got Tohru back. His Tohru.

He stood solemnly and relinquished the flashlights to their rightful owners. "Let's go." His light voice rolled out of his mouth as a determined, confident sound, but inside he was terrified of the possibilities that lay outside in the sinister wilderness, waiting to be discovered. 

Yuki's deceivingly steady hand reached the door and gently slid it open, like a portal into the engulfing maw of the night. His sneakered foot had barely come to rest on the first stone step outside when he heard a something that sounded almost completely alien to his ears, that filled the utter stillness of the twilight with it's bold, reverberating peal. 

The phone was ringing.

He had never heard anything as beautiful as that repetitive chime. Spinning with inhuman speed and grace, he shoved Kyou aside and sprinted straight for the source of the metallic intonation. 

Yuki could hear Shigure tumbling ferociously down the stairs as he threw open the door to the hall. The cat was right at his heels, little angry pants echoing from his throat at steady intervals as he tried to catch up with the mouse. He could see the phone now, undisturbed on the wall at the end of the hallway. 

Finally the sleet haired youth aggressively closed his hand around the receiver, his balmy palms sticking to the cold, unresponsive plastic. He could hear his own heavy breath pounding into the phone as his quaking hand pulled it to his ear, ferociously melding it with the flesh of his face, silencing the beautiful ring. 

Yuki held the phone close to him, so close that he could feel his lips brushing against the small pores of the apathetically cold mouthpiece as he desperately huffed the doctor's name.

"Hatori-san!" 

The sharply spoken spurt of sound seemed more like the plea of a dying man than a question of any kind. 

As he received the response form the other end, the teenager's heart nearly stopped beating, and the blood in his veins turn to ice. He heard the voice that had lurked in his nightmares as an evil specter ever since he was a small child, flittered through all the fearsome memories he'd had ever experienced; the most destructive voice he'd ever known, now chuckling malevolently at him through the crackly static. 

"Wrong, Yuki."

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After he spoke, Akito listened as the rapid pants of breath that had answered the phone ceased abrubtly. The silence from the other end of the line seemed so sudden that he wouldn't have been surprised at all to find out that the speaker had dropped dead from shock.

He laughed quietly to himself. _This _was the reaction he'd craved, the feeling he'd expected from the doctor when he'd startled him at the entrance of the Honke. The delicate-seeming leader said nothing for a long while, basking in the rush of ultimate power, the effect he still managed to inflict upon his very favorite relative. _No matter how weak I feel physically,_ he mused to himself as the utter stillness progressed, _Yuki will never let me down. _

Finally, the startled mouse spoke, breaking Akito out of his dreamlike state. "A-Akito-san. F-forgive my frankness, but w-why are you calling us…a-are you with Hatori…?" 

Akito felt an ominous laugh crawl up his throat, spilling it's slippery presence across the threshold of his pink lips and slithering to his subordinate's ears. He loved it when he was able to laugh like that, without forcing or creating it consciously. Yuki's trembling was practically audible.

"As a matter of fact, I am." He spoke in a maliciously light one of voice, gleefully cradling the doctor's phone in his slim, frosty fingers. He was surprised his mousy underling hadn't handed the phone over to Shigure as soon as he had heard his voice. But of course, he was worried about that _girl. _Worried enough that he would willingly subject himself to the torture that was Akito Souma.

"Did you…find her?" The high voice was calmer now, though still brimming with nervousness. 

"Yes." He closed his eyes, the lullaby of Yuki's terrified breaths soothing him as he swung his pale legs out the door like ghostly tree branches, scratching the dead, brown earth restlessly and kicking up small dust clouds that danced into the night like tiny phantoms. 

"Akito-san…." Apparently the shaken youth felt it was safe to pursue his previous line of questioning. "Is she alright? Please, please tell me."

The leader stayed torturously silent for a long moment, purposefully heightening the suspense. "No, she's not alright."

"What?! What happened to her?!" 

He savored Yuki's desperate voice, the plea that echoed once, twice, three times into the suddenly unresponsive phone.

"All I can tell you is…" he heard the line go still with the speaker's dread-filled anticipation. "That the last time I saw Tohru Honda, she was unconscious, though she probably wouldn't have been able to walk, had she been awake."

"Oh no…" The feminine sounding voice was suddenly saturated with grief.

Akito's enjoyment was brought to a rather untimely halt as he saw the dragon tromping through the unforgiving plant growth, grappling with the talon-like twigs and crude shrubbery as he headed towards his car, and his long-term patient. His coat was no longer resting on his broad shoulders, causing his untucked shirt to glow like a beacon in the moonlight. 

The head of the Souma clan watched his progress slowly with a sourly displeased look on his wan face. He would rather the doctor didn't lend his comforting presence to the girl's little family. Not yet anyway.

"I'm sorry, Yuki, truly, but I must be going. We will bring her to the Souma clinic tonight, and you may visit her around 10:00 tomorrow morning." He slammed the phone into the receiver that lay between the driver and passenger seats, terminating the call bitterly after his rushed farewell. Trust his unofficial guardian to ruin the little fun he managed to have these days. 

He glared icily as the gloomy and exhausted doctor reached his destination and leaned enervatedly against the metal, speaking wearily to Akito as he pressed his forehead to the cold roof of his small vehicle. "Did you call them?" 

"Do you think I was talking to myself?" Akito stood, disarranging the engulfing fabric of his fluttering kimono once again. He spoke on as he tightened it halfheartedly. "Or has my condition grown so severe that my mind is suffering, and I can no longer tell reality from fantasy?" he chortled meanly, his eyes twinkling with a sense of resentful superiority. "Ask another stupid question. It would be nice to see the rest of that education our family paid for." 

"Forgive me. It's just…" He rolled his head farther away from Akito, towards the trees and the withdrawn little clearing he had just come from, gazing at the night dismally. "Every one was so concerned, so guilty, the day she caught a simple _cold_. How on earth will they react to something like _this…_? This is…" trailing off, he sat soundlessly for a long instant, lids closed against the world's malignant actuality.

"What exactly happened to her?" he tried to sound nonchalant, but Hatori's sorrowful behavior had genuinely piqued his curiosity. 

The dragon straightened when he heard the unsuccessfully masked echo of interest in the silky voice, and he stared down at the ailing boy in surprise. He couldn't decipher what Akito's reason for inquiring about Tohru was, but that questioning tone wasn't what he had expected to hear right away.

The startled look wasn't lost on the hostile teen. "Not that I care." He turned, displaying his darkly clothed back to the doctor and deliberately keeping his face averted as he spoke. "I was just wondering what could have shaken you so badly." He risked a glance over his shoulder, growing perturbed when he saw that Hatori hadn't stopped staring at him. "Well?"

The taller man shook his head with helpless exhaustion, dragging the car door open and collapsing in the back seat. He let his head drop back onto the upholstery, speaking to the listener above him whose face had disappeared from view. "She's got a broken leg, and maybe her arm too…I can't tell without doing an x-ray. And she says it hurts when she breathes."

"She's conscious?!" Akito ducked his head under the low metal roof, barely avoiding a painful collision with the hard rim. 

"Only for a moment." He opened his eyes slowly, gazing at the ceiling. "She woke up when I got to her, and I calmed her down and explained how we'd found her. I told her that you'd call the house and tell everyone that she was okay…that was her main concern, after all this…that they were still worried about her." He shot a quick glance at the youth beside him, probably guessing that the Souma leader had been less than reassuring to the people he'd spoken with. Before an angry retort could respond to the look, the dragon turned his gaze upward once more, and continued his report on the girl's condition. 

"I couldn't do much for the bruises she had…and she had a few minor cuts and scratches, but I don't think she'll need any stitches. I made her as comfortable as I could, and put a makeshift brace on her leg. She passed out after that." He blinked slowly, clearing his head, and leaned forward, pulling the phone towards his face and dialing a memorized number quickly. "I'm going to tell the clinic to expect us."

"Are you sure she doesn't need an ambulance?" Akito's eyes flicked through the gray interior of the car. It was spacious, when the occupants were sitting in their seats, but how would they fit the girl in here for the ride? She would most likely need to lay down, and there wasn't enough room for her to do that comfortably, unless…

"An ambulance would take too long to find her in the middle of these woods, and they would take her to the hospital, not the clinic." Hatori eyed the adolescent apprehensively, cradling the phone gently to his cheek as it rang. "We can fit her in if you'll let her put her head in your lap." 

__

What? How dare he even suggest…?! Fire rose in Akito's eyes as they grew insulted, repulsed._ That idiotic Tohru Honda, resting on him like he was some kind babysitter?! _He felt his blood boil, a torrent of harsh, angry words crashing to the tip of his tongue, ready to launch themselves at Hatori like painful missiles. 

The doctor, sensing the impending storm, brushed his hair away from his face exasperatedly. The aggravated motion revealed his left eye; the one the leader had marred. There was barely a scar, just a few discreet, white, chicken scratches on the doctor's cheek, but the sight of them caused the glowing embers in Akito's mouth to fizzle out momentarily. 

It was just a small pang of guilt, but it was an unusual enough feeling for Akito that he pursed his lips, closing the floodgates and forcing the enraged waves back into his soul. He could yell at the doctor later. 

"We'll see." Hatori's eyes jerkily darted upwards in surprise, trying to read the dark eyes above him for any ulterior motives that might be lurking in their depths. The teen blew off the look with a scornful snort as he withdrew from the car in a languid, feline motion. He spun slowly, staring off into space as the doctors low voice suddenly permeated the silence, filling it with incomprehensible medical jargon as he spoke with the person on the other end of the line. 

After a few moments, Akito restlessly set off through the clingy brush, following the make-shift path that the doctor had forged earlier. The path that led to Tohru Honda. He wanted to witness the extent of her injuries for himself. 

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*continues trembling under bed*

You hate me even more now, huh?

You're all thinking, "I waited 4 months for this?!! A crap chapter?! How _dare_ that idiotic demigoddess! Maybe it's time to test her immortality…"

Right?

I'm sorry.

I know this is horribly anti-climatic, and it didn't even answer the $100, 000 question: What happened to Tohru?

Don't worry, this was just to tide you over until I could churn the next one out.

Cybeleflame, my beta reader (Arigatou!!), insisted that I post it right now, and not add any more because it would take to long for my nit-picky self to write it all. So, you have this thanks to her!

*crawls out from underneath the bed and gets into Ayame-like position*

I have an announcement to make:

I have recently started reading the manga Gravitation and I'm hooked!! I want more!! If one of you readers can tell me how to get the anime, I would be so very grateful. In fact, if someone tells me how & where to get it, I promise to have updated by the middle of December! Maybe sooner! 

So, there's some incentive to help me out! 

Please review…I know I deserve flames, but please…be gentle. ;_;

See ya soon!!

Dark Demigoddess

__


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